China’s New Future
The 2013 Fortune Global Forum program will focus on “China’s New Future,” including both the evolution of China’s domestic economy, the development of China’s Western regions, and China’s emerging role in the global context.
The global economy is now on the brink of monumental change that will define business for the rest of the 21st century. For the first time in history, more people now live in urban centers than in the countryside. Dynamic new cities are springing up rapidly in the developing world. This trend toward urbanization will demand new ways of thinking about housing, transportation, education, energy, and food supplies. At the same time, technology keeps advancing at a rapid pace. Smart phones, social media, and tablets are revolutionizing the way corporations interact with their customers.
As the world economy expands, how will CEOs and government leaders deal with these monumental changes? What new leadership approaches will be needed to harness the potential of this growing new class of consumers? What new partnerships between the private sector, governments, and NGOs will be needed to ensure that their economies will be able to expand in sustainable ways at a time when populations—especially in the developing world—are exploding? The challenges are steep but the opportunities are unprecedented.
Content Pillars
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
As the middle class grows in emerging countries, and as millions of rural residents flock to cities, finding ways to nourish, house, and transport these dynamic populations—without depleting the earth of its resources—becomes one of the critical issues of our time. We’ll examine the role companies and scientists will play in the design and implementation of cutting-edge technologies to manage our energy, water, and food systems sustainably. We’ll talk with government, corporate, and community leaders working to make sure that the prosperity of the world’s peoples doesn’t come at the expense of the earth’s fragile ecosystem. We’ll also take a close look at China’s vast portfolio of green initiatives, and its massive resource needs, to see what’s working and what’s not.
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
What are the new discoveries that will transform business and society in the coming decade and who will invent them? Networking platforms such as Facebook fascinate the world not only for their economic potential but also for their power to affect social change. How will the widespread availability of broadband and the ability to access the so-called “cloud” continue to change the way global populations live and work? Is China on course to become a leader in technological innovation? Can government policies and investment truly spark innovation, or is the development of the next Silicon Valley more art than science?
GLOBAL FINANCE AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY
What are the lessons from the last five years of economic turmoil? Austerity isn’t a silver bullet, and in many countries stimulus spending is a nonstarter. And local economies are more interconnected than ever, such that slowing growth in a country such as India is headline news in Poland and Paraguay. We’ll explore the role of relatively nascent economic superpowers, and the challenges of the new, hyperconnected global economy. We’ll also discuss China’s role as a major trading partner to the rest of the world and as a major holder of international debt, particularly U.S. treasuries, a fact that inextricably ties these two global powers. In the wake of the global crises, we’ll examine China’s power and changing role as an important economic leader.
THE CHINA CENTURY
In 1941 Fortune founder Henry Luce coined the term “The American Century” to describe the United States’ economic, political, and cultural dominance. Are we on the cusp of the “China Century”? Our program will examine the forces contributing to the continued rise of China as an economic superpower, from demographics—the population is moving to cities and investing in educating its young—to the changing face of Chinese business, which is seeking to develop global brands. We’ll also address the challenges China must face, such as business and government transparency, to maintain its ascent. The goal: to help global leaders better understand not only how to operate in China, but also how to keep pace with a nation that is well aware of its massive potential and is helping to rewrite the rules of economic and political globalization.
